The Chinese physical type is well known—yellowish in color, with slanting eyes, high cheek bones, black hair, and a flat face. The eye is more properly described as having the “Mongolic fold” at the inner angle. This mark is found to some extent in all Mongolian peoples, in the Japanese, and now and then in individuals of the European branches of this race in Russia and Austria-Hungary.
Egyptian (ē-jipt´ē-ăn).—The ancient race or people of Egypt, best represented to-day by the Copts or Fellahs, although those are generally of mixed stock. In a political sense, any native of Egypt.
The origin of the Egyptians is still a matter of dispute. It is quite probable that they were Hamitic and belonged to the Berber type. They have no real negroid trace about them, though probably there is a strain from intermarrying; thus it is likely that they may have been a fair-skinned indigenous race, mixed also with people of Asiatic origin, and a certain amount of negro blood. The earliest types, as pictured by themselves on monuments, show men of fine build with no trace of the negroid type; the males are painted red-brown and the females a light yellowish tint.
The fellah (Arabic for ploughman) forms the bulk of the peasantry. They are chiefly Mohammedan in faith, though the Copts, also natives of Egypt, have kept their Christian belief.
The Egyptian features are as unchangeable as the pyramids themselves. On the right is the sculptured likeness of Queen Tiy of four thousand years ago; on the left of an Egyptian girl of the present day.
The fellah is a hard-working and industrious person, of big build, with a fine, oval face, smooth black hair (the head is usually shaved), and well formed features. The women are often of great beauty, both in form and figure, though they lose their youth early. The Copts are racially the purest descendants of the ancient Egyptians. The coloring of the fellah varies from a fair [282] yellowish shade in Lower Egypt to a deeper tone in Middle Egypt, and in Upper Egypt the majority are a deep bronze. The Arab portion of the population are of two classes: the Arabic speaking tribes who come from the deserts, and the Hamitic tribes who speak a language of their own. The Nubians are chiefly mixed with Arab blood. The foreigners are mainly Greeks, Turks, Italians, British, French, Syrians, Levantines, and Persians.
Etrurians (ē-tru´ri-anz), or Etruscans (ē-trus´-kanz).—The ancient inhabitants of Etruria, the modern Tuscany. The Etrurians are the most mysterious people of antiquity. According to ancient tradition, they came from Lydia in prehistoric times, and colonized Latium. Certain details of their costumes and customs appear to be identical with those of Lydia, and the legend is probably based upon fact.
The Etruscans were proverbially a religious people. Their tombs bear witness to a belief in a future life, and a dread of the malignant power of their deities.
Greeks.—The ancient Greeks belonged to Aryan or Indo-European race. They entered Greece from the North, and as they moved south in separate tribes, the foremost tribes were impelled forward by the pressure of those behind. Even when the whole of the peninsula had been for some time filled and fully occupied, a fresh wave of immigrants swept over the whole country, disturbing everything. Such a wave was the “Return of the Heraclidæ,” or the Dorian Invasion. The result was to drive emigrants on to and over the isles of Greece, and to plant Greek cities and Greek culture on the coasts of Asia Minor. At later times Sicily, the Black Sea, Libya, etc., were dotted with Greek colonies, the ancient Greeks were pre-eminent in philosophy and science, leaders in the civilization of their own day, and laid the foundations of modern civilization.